I like the young talent the Bucs seem to be accumulating, and I'm guardedly optimistic about the future.  But moreso than Littlefield's ineptness or the players' flat out inexperience and lack of top tier talent, what really disappoints me about the last 3-4 years of Pirate baseball is that there just aren't any gamers on this team.  No brashness, no attitude.  You don't see anyone pitching inside consistently with the intent to intimidate, you don't see baserunners go into 2nd base hard.  I can't remember the last time I saw a Pirate charge the mound or get into any type of confrontation with an opponent.  Not saying that they have to play without class to win, but there's just no damn fire.

The parallel may stop completely at this point only, but prior to '86 the Mets were an abysmal team with no direction.  Granted adding super-talents like Doc and Straw goes a long way, but the Mets also put together a team of brash young guys with balls that thought they were a lot better than they were.  They improved from '83 to '86 in no small part due to that attitude.

Torres is about the only Pirate I think has a screw loose. The rest are just nice guys.  Does this piss anyone else off but me?